Calling him an “ordinary airman” who stepped up “to make a difference,” Lt. Gen. Norman Seip, 12th Air Force boss, presented the Airman’s Medal last week to Maj. Trace Steyaert at Ellsworth AFB, S.D. On June 10, 2007, Steyaert had rescued a swimmer caught in a rip tide and unable to swim back to shore at Thinker’s Beach near Monrovia, Liberia, where the major had deployed to support a US Army unit. Steyaert is with the 28th Logistics Readiness Squadron at Ellsworth. (Ellsworth report by A1C Abigail Klein)
The Pentagon’s fiscal 2026 defense budget, submitted to Congress last week, accelerates the downsizing of the U.S. Air Force. It proposes divesting 340 aircraft, while only acquiring 76. These cuts risk the Air Force’s ability prevail. “Peace through strength” has...